Default subreddits are the worst. They only affect people who care enough to make an account. If you just go to reddit you see, in essence, /r/all, an aggregation of all the most popular links.

If you make an account, you see the filter of default subreddits on your frontpage. If the user has demonstrated a desire to participate, I don't think they would begrudge a wizard or interest selector tool to explore the offerings and at least create a baseline of personalized content.

When subreddits first came we envisioned a lot of possible problems, but this default pickle wasn't one of them. How the hell were /r/atheism and /r/politics default for so long?

Much as I know I should know better, it's still always a bit surprising to hear that something I just sort of assumed was there, floating in the ether, is actually held together by spit, duct tape, drawn-out pseudonymous personality clashes, and similar stuff.

Wikipedia, at least, has more historical metadata for examining how the sausage got made (though the answers aren't always pretty) and we all know the story of OpenSSL now....

To me it sounds like that they realized those are all sensational topics that will keep getting posted over and over with very little new information. Additionally, if you are subscribed to the defaults, you would probably get those same articles from other subs. So maybe you guys reel in the censorship rhetoric a bit?

Anyone who goes to reddit.com sees only default subreddits, whether they have an account or not. You only see all subreddits if you specifically go to reddit.com/r/all. Again, you see all subreddits there whether you have an account or not.

Some people say that /r/all should be the main page for everyone, and that defaults are an unnecessary and even undesirable filter. However, the problem with /r/all is that it includes a lot of NSFW content (if you have an account) and a lot of highly specialized content from communities that are very active but not general interest (things like League of Legends, polandball, etc.).

Default subs seem like a flawed but necessary compromise, though maybe not the best one.